AVIXA is pleased to announce that there are now 1,000 AV professionals with a Certified Technology Specialist™ (CTS®) certification in Europe. For more than 30 years, AVIXA has administered the CTS program, which is recognized worldwide as the leading AV professional credential, helping businesses to elevate themselves and deliver value to their clients. There are currently more than 12,000 CTS holders and over 2,000 of those are CTS-D or CTS-I holders.

“This marks a significant milestone in AVIXA’s development in the European market,” said Chris Lavelle, senior director of development Europe, AVIXA. “The AV market is flourishing in the region, and we are thrilled that many industry members are committing to professional development. CTS holders across Europe are reaping the benefits of their hard work, with the program allowing dedicated AV professionals to stand out from the crowd and prove their expertise. We would like to congratulate all our CTS holders for achieving this hard-earned credential, and we look forward to seeing them utilize their knowledge to deliver outstanding integrated experiences.”

Many CTS holders in Europe are also progressing further in their AV education and going on to achieve specialized credentials: CTS-D (design) or CTS-I (installation). All three certifications are ANSI accredited under the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) ISO/IEC 17024:2012 General Requirements for Bodies Operating Certification Schemes of Persons program.

“CTS benefits both employee and the employer, but I feel that CTS benefits the employee most,” said Justin Paveley, CTS-D, CTS-I, engineering director, AVMI. “CTS has given me self-confidence, credibility and a technical proficiency that I wouldn’t have received elsewhere.”

“In our business model, we see our main selling point as being a source of expert AV knowledge,” said Marcus Boij, CTS, technical director, Informationsteknik Scandinavia AB. “Having CTS-certified staff has allowed us to demonstrate that knowledge and compete with much larger companies when pitching for high profile tenders. As a result, we have been successful with several of these bids, including at SEB Bank, which is the largest AV installation in Sweden. With CTS credentials, we can show how serious we are about knowledge and education.”

“Our short- to mid-term strategy is to establish a unified environment across all departments that interface on a technical level, where we all speak the same ‘AV language,'” said Alex Sanfilippo, CTS-D, director of engineering at Kraftwerk Living Technologies. “We have seen the benefit of this already and AVIXA certification is the only platform in our industry that has such a broad range of certification and coverage.”